Week 9 Streaming Options

Welcome, all to the Week 9 edition of Streaming Options where there are slim pickings at the quarterback position once again due to six teams on a bye. Due to a season-ending injury to Deshaun Watson during today’s practice, the backup becomes a streaming option perhaps for the first and only time this season. There are some other quarterback options that could be of assistance to your fantasy teams. And of course, the DST streaming options are rather plentiful if looking for defenses in favorable spots.

Before looking forward to the QB and DST streaming options for Week 9, let’s review the complete results at the quarterback position from last week’s article:

Quarterback- Week 9 Streaming Options

Jacoby Brissett | Indianapolis Colts

Brissett has had an up and down year so far, but he has shown some promise, scoring over 15 fantasy points in three of the seven games he has started in Indianapolis. He was a pleasant surprise against a tough Bengals pass defense in Week 8, managing 233 passing yards and two touchdowns. With the recent news that Andrew Luck was FINALLY placed on injured reserve, it appears that this will be Brissett’s team for the remainder of the season. He doesn’t have a ton of upside but he’ll look to take advantage of a favorable matchup. The Texans are uncharacteristically weak against the pass, surrendering over 19 fantasy points per game despite compiling eight interceptions. Furthermore, Russell Wilson just shredded their defense for 400 yards and three touchdowns but to expect anything like that stat line for Brissett would be unrealistic but a floor of 250-270 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 30-40 yards rushing is reasonable. So Brissett is a nice streaming option in two-quarterback leagues.

Jared Goff | Los Angeles Rams

Coming out of his bye week, Goff gets a cake matchup against a leaky New York Giants pass defense who will be without Janoris Jenkins, suspended indefinitely by the team for not reporting back to the team promptly after their bye week. The second-year quarterback has been extremely steady this season, especially in favorable matchups. Goff’s worst two games this year have come against two of the better pass defenses in the league, Seattle, and Jacksonville. Outside of those two games, he’s been a useful streaming option. The Giants are allowing quarterbacks to score the seventh-most fantasy points per game and ranked just 21st in pass defense DVOA through Week 7. This sets up as a prime spot to stream Goff in leagues of 12 teams or more.

Drew Stanton | Arizona Cardinals

Only the New England Patriots have allowed more fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks than the San Francisco 49ers. Decimated with injuries across the board on defense, the Niners will be hard pressed to stop anyone. Stanton doesn’t appear to be a big threat, but he has had success against San Francisco in the past, throwing four touchdown passes and zero interceptions in two games dating back to 2014. I’m chalking this matchup as a stat line of 250 yards and two touchdowns for Stanton in Week 9. He’s a good streamer in two-quarterback leagues.

Tom Savage | Houston Texans

This selection is a desperation play if you had Deshaun Watson as your main quarterback because Watson tore his ACL on a non-contact play in practice Thursday afternoon and your probably scrambling looking for his replacement, so Savage is likely the only option if any other starting quarterbacks are gone in your league. The matchup is a very enticing and juicy one against an Indianapolis Colts pass defense which is 31st in passing yards allowed per game (290.4), 32nd in yards gained per pass attempt (8.9), 32nd in yards gained per pass completion (14.1). Yes, I know he only lasted the first half in the opener but was against the Jaguars and their best pass defense in the NFL. So he does have a chance to put up much better numbers facing the worst pass defense in the league, but I’m not 100 percent confident he will. Therefore, he’s a low-level streaming option for two-quarterback leagues only.

Defense/Special Teams- Week 9 Streaming Options

New Orleans Saints

For the third week in a row, the Saints appear in this piece. Their solid play on defense has been surprising, especially after they looked like the typically bad defense they’ve been in previous seasons when they were torched the first two weeks of the season by the Vikings and Patriots. Since Week 3, they’ve held four of five opponents to under 20 points highlighted by a shutout of the Dolphins in London and forcing an absurd five turnovers and scoring three touchdowns in a Week 6 home win against the Lions. Their Week 9 opponent, the Buccaneers can be explosive offensively at times, but they’re turnover prone with 12 in seven games (tied for seventh most), and they were held to a paltry three points and 279 yards of total offense by the Panthers last week. Jameis Winston has been playing through an AC joint sprain in his throwing shoulder and head coach Dirk Koetter contemplated pulling him after a hit in the fourth quarter says that he’s concerned about further injury to that throwing shoulder. Be sure to keep tabs on his status in case he suffers any setbacks this week. Of course, a setback might not rear its ugly head until Friday since the team hasn’t decided if he’ll throw in practice Wednesday or Thursday this week; he hasn’t been throwing those two days in practice the last couple weeks. If Ryan Fitzpatrick is thrust into starting duties, the Saints go from a good, high-upside option to an elite streaming play.

Arizona Cardinals

There’s no question which game this week has the least watchability as this one takes the cake. The 49ers have scored 20 points total in C.J. Beathard’s two starts the last two weeks and he has tossed only one touchdown against two interceptions. If you include his relief appearance against the Redskins, he’s led the team to 44 points in about 10 and a half quarters of action. It would seem that he’s not an NFL-caliber starting quarterback and the 49ers aren’t an NFL-caliber offense at the moment. They’ve yielded the second most sacks (27), are tied for the seventh most turnovers (12), tied for 28th in yards per play (4.7), and 29th in points per game (16.8). The Cardinals defense has disappointed at almost every turn this year, but this matchup is too good to resist as a streaming option for Week 9. There are very few stats that paint the Arizona DST in a favorable light, but the only thing that really matters here is who the opponent is despite playing on the road.

Cincinnati Bengals

The Bengals DST has quietly provided halfway decent value in the majority of weeks and they should find some success against Jacksonville in Week 9. Blake Bortles is still capable of a meltdown, but the real factor is going to be what the game flow looks like. If the Bengals offense is unable to get anything going, the Jags will be able to lean on Leonard Fournette which will limit the upside of the Bengals defense. The big positive here is that there is very little chance of an implosion, which means the Bengals should be a good, safe play for those who aren’t really concerned about upside.

Carolina Panthers

Very quietly, the Panthers defense has been rather strong these past few weeks and they’ll look to lean on them in an important divisional game against the Falcons, who are struggling offensively. Here are some of the impressive numbers that the Panthers defense have been producing so far this season: 5th in scoring defense (17.8), 2nd in sacks (27), 5th in yards per play allowed (4.7), 3rd in passing yards allowed per game (182.4), 5th in rushing yards allowed per game (81.6), 3.8 yards per rush, and allowing just three touchdowns on the ground all season long. This is not the same Falcons offense that ran the gauntlet to the Super Bowl, although they are very good in protecting the quarterback ranking 25th in the NFL in total sacks allowed, therefore this could be a low scoring affair. With Matt Ryan playing at a far-from-explosive level, the Panthers will need to focus on shutting down Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman. If the Carolina defense can keep the Falcons running game in check, I believe that they have some mid-level appeal as a streaming option.

Tennessee Titans

This matchup is perfect for the Titans. They are coming off of a bye and facing a run-heavy offense. The Ravens rank dead last in passing yards per game (152.9), yards per attempt (5.3), and 31st in adjusted yards per attempt (4.5). The Titans are much stronger against the run than the pass and have held teams to the 10th fewest yards per game (100.1) rushing at just 3.61 yards per carry. As of this writing, Ravens starting quarterback Joe Flacco has exhibited zero concussion symptoms, but he’ll still need to make it through concussion protocol for him to start or even to be active for the game as the back-up. Tennessee’s defense gets a boost if Flacco is out and Ryan Mallett is forced to start, but even if Flacco plays, he’s been dreadful this year and a player to attack with defenses as opposed to avoid. An under-the-radar DST streamer.